International Canoe Federation award two World Championships to new course being built for Rio 2016

The course being built for next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro has been awarded two major events by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) in an attempt to help ensure its legacy, it was announced today.

The Whitewater Stadium, currently being built in Deodoro, will host the 2017 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships and the 2018 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.

The decision, announced following the ICF Board meeting in Marrakech, follows a visit from senior officials to the construction site of the canoe slalom course, after which they claimed it was "wonderful".

The canoe slalom course has proved to be one of the most controversial of the Rio 2016 venues after Brazilian officials at one point proposed not building it and instead holding the events 700 miles away to an existing course near the famous Iguaçu Falls.

Both the ICF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) opposed the idea, however, and it was eventually dropped.

Construction is now almost completed on the reservoir that will feed the 250 metres course for next year's Olympics.

Fully modular, man-made obstacles will be placed along the course to simulate the rocks found on natural rapids.

An innovation of the Rio 2016 project is the use of pre-casted slabs for the river bed.

The course design underwent innovate model testing at Prague's Czech Technical University last year and there are now 900 people working in two shifts on its construction in Deodoro.

"The general views, landscape and atmosphere of the venue will be absolutely wonderful," said Jean Michel Prono, the ICF's technical delegate who is helping oversee the building of the course.

"Now we are focusing on more specific aspects, such as channel construction, the obstacles - how we create this artificial river in the middle of Rio.

"We must shape and tune this river to have a flow of 12-13 cubic metres per second, with waves, eddies and other features.

"It is an artificial river, but it follows the principals of a natural river - and we must play with this: directing, slowing and accelerating the water along the course.

"We will have a very, very good international standard competition course, and we will probably save energy and operating costs, in comparison to London [the 2012 Olympics], as we learn from one experience to the next."

After the Games, the Whitewater Stadium and the Olympic BMX Centre will form the X-Park.

The first major ICF event to be held after Rio 2016, the Canoe Freestyle World Championships will fit in perfectly with its target of attracting youngsters.

Canoe freestyle is a whitewater disicpline where the paddler performs a range of acrobatic tricks and manoeuvres on a river feature such as a wave or hole.

ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, meanwhile, is the sport's flagship event outside the Olympics and have taken place every year in non-Summer Olympic years since 2002.

This year's Championships are due to be held in London at the Lee Valley White Water Centre, the venue for London 2012.

The 2017 Championships, the year before Rio de Janeiro stages it, are scheduled to be held in Pau, France.

Meanwhile, the course in Parc Olímpic del Segre, built for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, has been chosen to host the 2019 ICF Canoe Slalom and Wildwater World Championships, whilst the Freestyle World Championships will be contested in nearby Sort.

This will be the first time the three disciplines have been combined to create a single region focal point for the three whitewater canoeing World Championships in the same season.

The Spanish Federation's innovative bid also included a significant investment in the sports development, plus a commitment to redevelop the venue in Sort, increasing its world-class credentials.

The 2018 ICF Junior and Under-23 Canoe Slalom World Championships were awarded to Ivrea in Italy.

This is the first time a canoe slalom World Championship has been hosted in Italy since Mezzana in 1993.

Italy also secured the 2016 ICF Canoe Polo World Championships, which will be contested in Siracusa.

Szeged has the honour of hosting the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, the fourth time the event have been held there.

The 2019 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, meanwhile, were awarded to Shaoxing in China and Lake Lanier Gainesville in the United States won its bid to host the 2018 ICF Dragon Boat World Championships.

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About the author

Duncan Mackay is the editor of insidethegames.biz. Awards include British Sports Writer of the Year in 2004, British News Story of the Year in 2004 and British Sports Internet Reporter of the Year in 2009. Mackay is one of Britain's best-connected journalists and during the 16 years he worked at The Guardian and The Observer he regularly broke a number of major exclusive stories, including the news that British sprinter Dwain Chambers had tested positive for banned performance enhancing drugs.

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